Back when I was living in Columbus, Ohio my friends and I started a quote wall. Whenever a bit of brilliance (or otherwise) poured out of someone’s mouth, somebody would yell “Quote!” thus nominating it for Quote Board status. The quote then had to be seconded by someone (it almost always was), and then it would be written down to be forever immortalized on the Quote Board.

I know it might seem like I sit at home all day long, drinking beer and updating The Blarg, but the truth is I spend much of my day writing.

Lately, most of my writing has been on long-form projects. Because of this, I sometimes write a short (most times comedic, other times not so much) to break up the monotony of those longer projects. But while these shorts are fun to write as an exercise, nobody ever really gets to read them.

To remedy this, I’ve decided to share them here. I’m doing this for two reasons:

1. I like to share! That, and it’s better than having them sit on my computer.

2. It’s my hope that someone might be inspired to actually do something creative with them. Want to film one as a short? Awesome. Interested in animating one? Go for it. Feel like performing one live onstage? I dare you. All I ask is that you give me credit where it’s due, and (if possible) send me a copy of the final product.

The twenty-seventh of Shady’s Shorts is called “Real Conversations: Stainless Steel.”

Unlike previous Shady’s Shorts, “Real Conversations” will be an ongoing series of shorts that document actual conversations I’ve either recently overheard or had with people. The fourth of this series is titled “Stainless Steel.”

Five days later, on Sunday, November 9th, we “held” our first L.A. Food Night.

Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. While KB and I did cook the meal that night—chicken manicotti—our friend Denise hosted, and the group was admittedly small. It was us, Denise, Lille, and two people we had just met, but would soon become close friends with: Mel and Kyle.

Here’s a photo of them with KB from that night:

And here’s another photo of the three of them nearly seven years later, shot during our going-away party on September 24th, 2015.

Our last official Food Night in L.A. was held on Sunday, September 20th, 2015. Unlike the first L.A. Food Night, a bunch of folks came out including our good friend Theune…